Bart D. Ehrman's Blog, page 26

The Hobby Lobby, the Museum of the Bible, and Incredible Academic Fraud

It's amazing how much fraud goes on in the study of ancient manuscripts, sometimes to the tune of millions of dollars, often, these days, oddly, in highly religious circles.  Here's the final part of my discussion of fraud connected with New Testament fragments from about five and a half years ago (May, 2020). ****************************** An [...]

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The Low-Down on That First-Century Gospel of Mark

Several people have asked about what ever happened to that so-called first-century copy of the Gospel of Mark that I mentioned in my just-finished post on mummy-masks.  I explained what happened when the mystery finally got solved about five years ago.  Here's what I said then.  (It gets even more bizarre later, as I'll explain [...]

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Final Reflections on Mummy Masks and Manuscripts

OK, I am at the tail end of this thread on mummy masks and the alleged discovery of a first-century fragment of Mark’s Gospel.   This thread was first posted in 2015.  Here is how I ended it then. But I did want to provide access to an interesting article and penetrating set of questions on [...]

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A True Expert Speaks About Mummy Masks and Papyri

  In our age of the superiority of non-expertise, occasionally an authority speaks out who reveals the truth.  Here is a case in point, when a true expert on ancient papyri explains what's going on with those mummy masks I've mentioned in earlier posts. Again, this is from 2015; things have changed in terms of [...]

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Annual Appeal 2024: Behind the Mission Pt. 1

As you may know, the Bart Ehrman Foundation and Blog are embarking on our first-ever annual appeal in support of the incredible work done by Urban Ministries of Durham (UMD). For years, the blog has been a steadfast supporter of UMD, an organization dedicated to providing essential services such as food, shelter, and hope to [...]

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Can We Defend Destroying Mummy Masks?

Here is my second re-post from 2015 about destroying ancient mummy masks in hopes of finding manuscripts. In yesterday’s post I cited an article by Mary-Ann Russo that explained the situation about the mummy masks that were being destroyed in order to acquire papyrus fragments of the New Testament.  The scholar mainly cited in that [...]

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Destroying Mummy Masks

Is it OK to destroy ancient mummy masks in hopes of finding yet something more valuable out of them? I have just returned from my annual professional meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, where thousands of biblical scholars come to read academic papers to one another, sit on panels to review books or discuss [...]

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Readers’ Questions and My Responses (11/2024)

I have received some more interesting questions in the comment section of the blog, and thought I should published them more broadly, along with my responses.  Here goes!   Question: What are your views on what Jesus is communicating in the ‘Whose Son Is the Messiah?’ story in the synoptics where Jesus references Psalm 110:1. [...]

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Special Webinar Announcement: Ehrman Blog Annual Appeal

As the holiday season begins, we want to share an opportunity to make a meaningful impact in the lives of those who need it most. Take a listen to this message from Bart to find out more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLeX5... This December, the Bart Ehrman Foundation is launching our first-ever Annual Appeal to raise funds for [...]

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Jewish Disagreements About the Afterlife: Pharisees and Sadducees

In previous posts I have discussed the different Jewish sects that we know about from the first century, at the dawn of Christianity (Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Fourth Philosophy).  In the post I indicated that (a) there were different understandings of the afterlife among them, but (b) there was a belief in a future resurrection of [...]

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